Film Review: Hindi Medium (2017)

Hindi Medium is the story of a Chandni-Chowk-based couple, Raj & Mita, who are concerned to send their daughter, Pia, to the city’s top school so that the family can reach the levels of the high-society and raise their living standards.

Although the direction of Saket Chaudhary (Side Effects duology) is weak. But the heart of the film is his story which presents and sketches a remarkable exaggeration of the high society, and highly underrated moral principles and emotional values of the low society. It was a stupefying scene wherein the high society, the mothers do not allow their kids to play with a Hindi-speaking Pia just because the school doesn’t allow their kids to speak in Hindi with the other kids. What a jaw-opener!

The screenplay of Zeenat Lakhani is unrealistic but the focus point is the series of survival attempts made by the couples while living in both the societies. The timing and use of humor are excellent, dialogues are very lively, the background score is average. Film editing is sublime. The most impressive factor to make this film worth watching is a terrific character-chemistry of Irrfan Khan–SabaQamar as the couple. Their performances aid the audience to understand the raised topic. Deepak Dobriyal in a supporting role of Shyamprakash was also outstanding.

There are minuses like for example; the role of the daughter, Pia, for which the couple made sacrifices and efforts throughout the film, was extremely short. She wasn’t that involved and looked like if the stage was set only for the couple. Also, Shyamprakash never returned to the screen after he was about to complain. It looked silly because he was badly needed somewhere after Irrfan’s speech. The ending was predictable.

What I liked the most about the film was how the language plays a significant role in dividing the society into societies. An ugly truth.